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The brutal reality of slavery, the fantastical storytelling of a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and the cinematic poetry of an Oscar-winning director meet in Amazon Prime Video’s “The Underground Railroad.” Based on Colson Whitehead’s novel of the same name, the limited series, which premieres Friday, imagines a subterranean locomotive system that travels through a labyrinth of tunnels under the Southern United States, connecting runaway slaves to a network of abolitionists and safe houses on the way to freedom.
The 10-episode drama follows enslaved teenager Cora (Thuso Mbedu) and young man Caesar (Aaron Pierre) as they flee a cruel Georgia plantation only to discover that “free” white America has found plenty of creative ways outside of slavery to demonize, oppress and imprison Black folks. Cora and Caesar stumble into a fresh hell with each new “chapter” in the tale, many named for the states in which they’re set.
Barry Jenkins vividly recalls the moment he first heard about the Underground Railroad.
“I was around 5 or 6, and when I first heard those words, it wasn’t even imagined I
saw Black people on trains that were underground,” he recalled. “My grandfather was a longshoreman, and he would go to work with his hard hat and tool belt. I imagined someone like him building the Underground Railroad. The feeling was beautiful because it was purely about Black people, this idea of building things.”
The youngster would eventually learn that “Underground Railroad” was actually a colorful term for a network of safe houses and routes utilized by slaves to escape their oppressive masters in the antebellum South. But the image stayed with him into adulthood as his films, including the Oscar-winning “Moonlight” and the romantic drama “If Beale Street Could Talk,” made him one of Hollywood’s most respected filmmakers.
Martin Carr reviews The Underground Railroad…
Oscar-winning writer director Barry Jenkins comes to Amazon with a story of conflicting cultural identity and social intolerance. Adapted from the novel by Colson Whitehead, who serves as an executive producer alongside both Barry Jenkins and Brad Pitt,
The Underground Railroad pulls no punches. Caesar (Aaron Pierce) and Cora (Thuso Mbedu) serve as the eyes and ears to an audience invited into this visceral experience.
Not since Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, has a main stream piece of art tried to tackle the topic of colour blindness in America with such fervour. What this series exposes is casual inhumanity, indifferent degradation and a complete loss of identity felt by those of colour. Slavery is rarely mentioned in those opening episodes, yet a sense of ownership is implicit through the fear which is manifested through malicious punishments.
Review: âThe Underground Railroadâ Weaves an Epic Vision
In Barry Jenkinsâs dreamlike adaptation of the Colson Whitehead novel, the railway is real and so is the pain.
Thuso Mbedu is a woman on the run in an alternative antebellum America in “The Underground Railroad,” arriving Friday on Amazon.Credit.Kyle Kaplan/Amazon Studios
The Underground Railroad
NYT Critic s Pick
In Barry Jenkinsâs transfixing adaptation of Colson Whiteheadâs âThe Underground Railroad,â Martin (Damon Herriman), a white man smuggling Cora (Thuso Mbedu) as she escapes slavery, rouses her before dawn to witness something ghastly. Along the road theyâre traveling, grimly called âThe Freedom Trail,â the trees are hung with lynched corpses. âYou need to see this,â he tells her.